I feel like I really let you guys down last month, so this time around I'm going to talk about something unambiguously good: Parkinson's Disease! Shit. OK, what I'm really going to talk about is the television show Shrinking, and even more specifically the role played by Harrison Ford, who, spoiler alert, does get diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Good news, though. It's pretend! Well, not Parkinson's on the whole, but in this one instance.
Let me back up. Shrinking is a show (on Apple TV) that centers around a therapy practice run by Harrison Ford, Jason Segel, and Jessica Williams, three actors that I have enjoyed across multiple roles. The show was created by Bill Lawrence, the guy behind my favorite show of all time (Scrubs) and the also very good Ted Lasso. The additional bonus for this show is that it is about my profession, which is typically a big no from me unless, 1) the work they are doing is completely divorced what my actual job looks like (check) and , 2) it's exceptionally good (check).
So, I expected to like this show from the jump, and I expected Harrison Ford to be good. He's been in my life since my first watching of Star Wars and Indiana Jones, and has been in so many good movies over the years that it feels silly that I'm coming here to tell you how good he is. But I'm here to tell you, in Season 1 I said out loud, "I didn't think I could love Harrison Ford more, but I do."
As a psychologist, the problem I have with a lot of shows about mental health is that they lack creativity and depth. All the therapists are warm, touchy-feely people who want to help their patients get better, and end up crossing some professional boundary to make that happen. Jason Segel's character gets that trope in this show, and he plays it beautifully. The contrast with Harrison Ford's character is, well, he's kind of a dick. To put it slightly more charitably, he represents a more realistic example of a real, seasoned clinician, specifically in that he is neither over-involved, nor is he interested in sugar-coating things for his patients, his colleagues, or his friends. He is present as multiple characters are experiencing real, life-changing events, and he's hitting them with more than just empathy and positive affirmations that things will get better. And then he has to deal with his own tragedy and put all his tough talk into action.
In the course of writing this, I've spontaneously encountered several other interviews of people talking about Harrison Ford. One person referred to this show specifically and said, "Harrison Ford is a national treasure." Another actor talked about working with him, saying, "He's not like us. He's a different kind of person." This reinforces what I'm seeing. This is a guy who is professionally still taking on difficult things, perhaps grappling with his own aging and mortality, while absolutely nailing the role and helping me not hate all TV therapists. So that's this month's good. Harrison Ford is a damn fine actor. A national treasure, in fact. And Shrinking is worth your time. Enjoy!
